Filipino Exchange Students in Japan: Crispy Pork Belly

Filipino Exchange Students in Japan: Crispy Pork Belly

By: Tiffy

Both my roommate and I just barely started learning how to cook. So when our Kuya Victor asked us if we wanted to have lunch, we kind of forced him to cook everything by asking him to buy ingredients for us when they were at the grocery.

"Ano gusto niyo pabili?"  ("What do you want me to buy?")

"Kahit ano!" ("Anything!")

So he really did buy "anything" and ended up cooking them! Sneaky!

If you're craving for crispy pork belly, never fear! It's apparently very easy to cook (although I've never tried)! 

Just buy liempo at your local meat shop, boil it until cooked, and sear (fry in super super hot oil) it. The sause is just garlic, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar (up to how you want it to taste like--I prefer super garlic-y and vinegar-y ones). 

What other Filipino food is easy to cook? Help! 

Tiffy in Japan: Burdock-flavored Rice

Tiffy in Japan: Burdock-flavored Rice

ミツカン 釜めしの素 香りごぼう (208g)

The truth is, I'm not really very experimental when it comes to buying stuff from the supermarket. It's mostly because my boyfriend helps me do the grocery and his mom sends me a lot of foodstuff. This was one of them. 

2-3 cups of rice and add the stuff in. I usually make 3 so that I can put everything else in the fridge and eat it for the next 2-3 days. 

After 15-30 minutes (depending on the setting I choose)

Mix it all up and you're done.

It has a chicken-something taste to it and it smells REALLY good. Sometimes, I make onigiri for breakfast using this rice. 

Modern Cookbook: Yummy Filipino Recipes iPad App

Marielle Ebao

I enjoy watching cooking shows and occasionally browsing through recipe books to find dishes I can try out for myself. I look for ones that are easy to prepare, since I am usually a disaster at the kitchen. The problem is, once I see something I'd like to try, most ingredients cannot be bought locally, or are too expensive for everyday meals. Luckily, Summit Media recently released its first ever iPad app, which contains Filipino recipes with easy-to-follow steps and uses ingredients that can be found in local grocery stores. 

This is a screenshot of the app's home page. The app takes after the vibrant Yummy magazine color scheme and engaging layout, only now, made easily accessible to techie Filipino food lovers whenever, wherever. 

Even the not-so-techie moms/dads can enjoy this app, because it's so easy to use, it even comes with a "How to Use this App" feature and handy navigation bars.

Recipes are grouped under these categories: Salads and Vegetables, Noodles and Rice, Fish and Seafood, Meat, Poultry, and Desserts and Sweet Snacks. Just choose a category, put on your apron, and raid your kitchen! 

I'm tempted to share screenshots of the actual recipes, because they all look so good! I'll let you find out for yourselves, though. So go ahead and download this app which retails at $3.99, by going to this App Store link: http://bit.ly/MzrLtv. Enjoy!

Thanks to the Summit Media team, especially to their Media Relations Associate, Ms. Charlotte Catapang, for introducing us to this app! :) 

Do leave your comments about the app here, and maybe share your favorite recipes! 

Therese in Taiwan: Homemade bread pudding

There was a time when I would occasionally crave for bread pudding, so when I'd see it on the menu, I'd immediately order it. Once, my friends and I went to Borough and I ordered their bread and butter pudding. Yum!

Borough's bread and butter pudding (picture taken last June 2011)

I knew from watching some cooking shows that it's easy to make, but since I'm not known to be an awesome cook/baker, I didn't know how to start. Luckily, my aunt loves to cook and she recently taught me how to make bread pudding.

The ingredients you would need are:

• leftover bread
• egg
• sugar
• milk

What you need to do are the following:

• tear the bread up into pieces (you decide how big or small they should be - it doesn't really matter) and put them in an oven container (like the one in the picture)
• crack the egg into a bowl, add the milk and sugar and then beat all the ingredients together
• pour the mixture over the bread, fully covering it in the process
• place the container into the oven and bake at around 200-250 degrees (if I'm not mistaken) for 10-15 minutes.
• if you're a fan of cheese like we are, you can also add some before putting the container into the oven 

There you have it! Enjoy the yummy goodness of bread pudding!

Tiffy's Attempt at a Different Dish

And I forgot what it's called.

Actually, my boyfriend came home before we finished cooking.

They have those powder soup thing and you just add stuff in!

The avocado is fresh from their garden. 

I cut the vegetables!
(Except the avocado--there's actually this technique that my boyfriend's mom taught me but I forgot)

Tiffy Learns How to Cook: Minced meat and Spinach Curry

So as I was saying, my boyfriend's mother taught me how to cook. One of his sisters has actually been working at a pastry shop for years now. From what I hear, she's a great cook. And since she's got married and moved to Tokyo, she left me some of her old cookbooks. One of them's titled １０分でごはん (10-minute meals):

Looking back, either I'm really an inefficient cook or the book was lying when it said 10 minutes.

Note: The steps I write down next are not translations of the instructions above.

You will need (good for 2 people):
salad oil
2/3 bundle of spinach (cut into 1-3 cm)
1/2 onion (diced)
1 large tomato (diced)
150 g minced meat
1 cup water
50 g curry cubes
20 g pizza cheese

I just followed the pictures, really.

1. Cook the spinach in salad oil (you'll know it's cooked when it goes all soft)
2. Take out the spinach
3. Add more oil and cook the onion and meat in medium heat
4. When the meat's done, pour 1 cup of water, and add the tomatoes. Let it cook for 1-2 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat and put in the cubes. Let it melt before turning on the heat again.
6. Once nicely mixed, add the spinach and mix.

Here's how mine turned out.

How to cook the egg:
1. Let the water boil (do not put the egg in yet)
2. Put in the egg and leave it for 5 minutes


My boyfriend has to work until 8 PM so he usually gets home at 8:30. He got home at 9 that day. We didn't add the cheese until we heard his car pull in the driveway.

I just cut generous slices of cheese (definitely didn't follow the recipe there) and put it on top of the curry and let it melt. I didn't mix it or anything. When it melts and when you transfer it to a plate, the lumps of melted cheese make it so much more appetizing.

I could never get the egg to be like in the picture.

(Notice the mats? They're my pasalubong to his family)

Without the cheese and half eaten.

I made this dish twice. I was told that the more times I did it the easier it will be for me.

O, puede na ba ako magasawa?

Tiffy Learns How to Cook: An introduction

When I was in Japan last October/November, my boyfriend's mother taught me how to cook.

Yes, that's right--and she had every reason to. 

When I was on my vacation at their house the year before last, Nori and I were waiting for dinner when he nudged me to offer his mom help with the salad. I did, and she handed me a knife and a cucumber to cut. As I was slicing the cucumber, she glanced at what I was doing and went, 危ない！ (That's dangerous!) at what I was doing. My left hand was grabbing the cucumber and apparently, you should not do this. 

This is how you do it, noobz.

[Photo source: How to cut vegetables]

That very same night her mom handed me a persimmon and a knife to peel it. I was having such a hard time at it that she ended up peeling it for me. At this point, I should mention that his mom is a sweetheart so she didn't really give me a hard time about it. 

My boyfriend, of course, was shocked: how can you not know how to cut vegetables, or cook? Didn't you learn it in school?

Oh, we did have a class where we had to cook. It's just that, I was the one who washed the dishes. 

In my next two posts, I will show you two recipes that I learned. Until then, can you recommend dishes that would be awesome to learn? Or any sort of kitchen tips (like, how you're not supposed to throw the dishwashing sponge in the washing machine--oh yes I did)?

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